The Blue Umbrella, Fear to release online

Published: Monday, August 6, 2007, 10:42 [IST]

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Courtesy: IndiaFMMonday, August 06, 2007 UTV Motion Pictures is set to redefine the landscape of film distribution by aggressively leveraging generation next technology. UTV announced tie-ups with three portals that will premiere UTV Motion Picture's two forthcoming film releases online along with treating the audience to the rich and varied fare of UTV's library of movies.

Vikram Bhatt directed Fear premieres on August 10 across three web portals. This film will be released online without a theatrical release, a first for an Indian film. Further, Vishal Bhardwaj's The Blue Umbrella also releases online on August 10, the same day as its theatrical release in India. Each online movie download is priced at USD 9.99 for a standard download and USD 19.99 for a higher resolution download. This is targeted at audiences in markets like US, UK, South East Asia and the Middle East. Both movies will be available on a 'download to Own' instead of the usual 'download to rent' with 72 hours DRM.

Says Siddharth Roy Kapur, Executive Vice President - Marketing, Distribution&Syndication, UTV Motion Pictures, "Our audiences overseas have lesser ease of access to our films as compared to audiences here in India. Using the Internet as a medium of distribution is the way forward for content owners to combat piracy; which is to have movies available for viewing legitimately online."

Besides all UTV Motion Pictures productions and releases will also be available online, for free streaming and/ or paid downloads. Some UTV films you can see online include: Swades, Rang De Basanti, Taxi No 9211, Bluffmaster, Chup Chup Ke, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Humko Deewana Kar Gaye, Hattrick and Life in a Metro.

As of now, this paid for content is being consumed primarily by the overseas audience and the revenue stream thus generated has a limited impact on the overall revenue of films. However, the next generation of film distribution will see online and iptv contributing much larger ratios to overall film revenues.